Gaming Laptops Defy Slumping PC Sales

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Gaming is still a goldmine

Since the beginning of time, gaming and gamers have driven innovation in the PC realm. Seriously, there's probably a cave somewhere with scribblings from our caveman and cavewoman ancestors giving credit to primitive games for leading up to the invention of the circular wheel. It should come as no surprise, then, that several notebook players are seeing their gaming laptop business grow even though the overall PC market is in a slump.
This applies to second-tier ODMs like Clevo and Shuttle, as well as branded vendors including Gigabyte and MSI, all of which are seeing increased gaming laptop sales, Digitimes reports. We're not just talking about minor bumps in sales, either; the gaming PC industry typically sees growth in the neighborhood of 10 percent every year.
Granted, the gaming PC industry also sees limited shipments compared to regular PCs, but higher gross margins and less competition are two factors that attract second-tier players to the market, Digitimes says.
Clevo, a major provider of gaming laptops and desktop replacements, expects its notebook shipments to grow to 180,000 to 200,000 units in 2014, up 40 percent compared to 2013. After factoring in lower production costs and high proit margins from gaming laptops, Clevo is expecting its profits to skyrocket next year.

Gaming laptops have also been good to MSI. After the company started focusing its attention on gaming notebooks in the second half of the year, its overall notebook business begain to flip a profit.
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